


Uncharted Territory

by lanalucy



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Sexual Situations, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Blow Jobs, Boys Kissing, Card Games, Community: bsg_kink, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, F/M, Hand Jobs, Implied Sexual Content, Jealousy, Kissing, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Male-Female Friendship, Masturbation, Multi, Mutual Pining, Polyamory, Porn, Post-Coital Cuddling, Pre-Relationship, Relationship Negotiation, Stripping, Threesome - F/M/M, Truth or Dare, Woman on Top
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-10 11:20:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanalucy/pseuds/lanalucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Theme: Opposites - Write a fic that features your favorite pairing in a situation where something is swapped.</p><p>What started out as a short and simple fic has generated an arc. Enjoy.</p><p>Enormous thanks to my betas newnumbertwo and laura_mayfair for being on board when this thing took on a life of its own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Think I'm Turning Gemenese

_Kara stared at Lee as if he had two heads. “You want me to_ what _?”_

_“Pretend to be my girlfriend while dad’s visiting. Come home with me for Solstice.”_

_“But you don’t like girls, Lee.” She waved her hands helplessly. “I mean, you don’t like them_ that _way.”_

_“Dad doesn’t know that. He can’t know that. You should hear some of the things he’s said about men who like men.”_

_“But we’ve never kissed or anything. He’ll never buy it.”_

_Lee looked at the ground, then back up at Kara, his eyes pleading. “We’ll have to be convincing. Maybe if we frak, we won’t be so awkward around each other.”_

_“Oh, my gods, Lee. That’s a terrible idea. Can’t you just go home for Solstice single?”_

_He shook his head. “Every time I come home without a girlfriend, dad gets more and more pushy about how getting married is essential to a Fleet career. Last time he threatened to set me up on dates if I couldn’t find my own. You think_ this _is a terrible idea….”_

Kara thought back over that conversation now, as she and Lee stood next to the hotel bed. They’d decided that they weren’t going to do this, whatever this was, on campus where they could be interrupted. She shrugged and said, “It’d probably be better to strip now. That’s probably the weirdest part of having sex.”

Lee looked relieved that she was taking the initiative and started shucking his clothes. “Good idea.”

When they were both naked, she gestured toward the bed, and Lee reached up to pull the covers down. They crawled in and Lee pulled the covers up nearly to his neck. Kara burst out laughing.

“What the frak, Kara?”

“Lee, you want to frak me to be convincing enough as a couple to keep your dad from setting you up on dates. We can’t really do that with us both covered to our necks.”

He flushed. “Oh. Right.” He pushed the covers down to their waists.

Kara rolled toward him. “Gimme your hand, Lee.” He held it out between them. She laced their fingers together. “Why don’t we start simple? Just kissing.”

Two minutes later, Kara pulled back. “Is it really that different kissing a girl, Lee? There are subtle differences in body shapes and stuff, but kissing is kissing, isn’t it?”

Lee stared at her. “It’s weird kissing _you_. Wait. You’ve kissed girls?” The covers moved and he moved his hand down to conceal it.

“Really, Lee? You’re into guys, and yet the thought of two chicks making out still gets you hot?” The color in his face was adorable. “Should we try this again, only with another girl?”

He was quick to say no. “What if I don’t get aroused? It’ll be all over campus before morning. It has to be just you, Kara.”

“Then what? Pull up some porn on the pay-per-view?” 

His face changed, and she said, “You know, that might work. We find some gay porn on the TV, you watch that, and if I’m behind you, kissing you and feeling you, it’ll be harder to remember I’m a girl. Then we get to the actual sex, and you’ll want to come bad enough that maybe it won’t matter.”

She hopped out of the bed before he could protest, found the remote, and pulled up the porn directory. She scrolled through the titles slowly, purchasing one when he said it sounded interesting.

The porn definitely worked at getting him hot, and Kara stayed behind him on her knees, kissing his neck, sucking his earlobes, feeling her way down his chest to his dick. When he closed his eyes and put his hand on top of hers on his cock, she whispered, “Sit back a little farther, Lee. Keep your eyes closed.”

He did what she said, and she got around in front of him, straddled him and fit his cock into her, sinking down little by little. “Do you want to do it sitting or lying down?”

Lee answered by lying back and putting his hands on her hips. She began to move, and in just a few strokes, Lee was quietly grunting out his release. She stayed there, fingers absently squeezing her breasts, until he opened his eyes. 

“That wasn’t so bad, right?” He shrugged. She pulled his hands from her hips to her breasts and held them there. Lee wrinkled his brow, and she said, “You got off. I didn’t. It’s my turn.” She closed her eyes, rotated her hips just a little, put one hand down to rub tight little circles on her clit. One of Lee’s hands moved, and she opened her eyes to see him licking his fingers, then they were back, rolling and pulling at her nipple. Her fingers moved faster.

“Oh, gods. Lee. Just..a little..harder.” She moaned softly and her thighs clamped around his hips as she climaxed. She stilled for a moment, then laid down on his chest, kissing his jaw. “Think we can convince your father, Lee?”

“Maybe. What if he asks why we’re not having sex? You know, if he notices that I’m not sneaking into your room at night or something?”

“Lie. My parents are Geminese and we’re waiting until we get married. Now, I don’t know about you, but I want to sleep until noon.”

“Don’t you want to…” He waved his hands at her body.

“Get dressed? Lee, we just frakked. It’s not going to kill you to sleep next to a naked girl. Now snuggle up. Boyfriend.”

“Karaaa.” 

She snickered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara needs a little help from a friend.

Kara’d been irritable for days, getting on his last nerve, and her knocking his shoulder while he was taking notes was the last straw. “Frak, Kara! I’ll have to do this page over again. What the frak is wrong with you, anyway?” He looked over and she had that want-a-fight expression on her face. Gods. Just what he needed. He had an exam tomorrow.

“Nothin’.”

“I call bullshit. Something’s been bugging you for days, and I wanna know what the frak it is. We’re friends, aren’t we? I mean, I told you about my problem with my dad, didn’t I?”

Her eyes cut to his for a second, then back toward the empty room. “True.”

“So? What the frak is it? Just tell me.”

“I’m kind of having the same problem.”

Lee snorted. “You’re gay and you don’t want your dad to find out?”

Kara’s bitter laugh rang out. “Well, I wouldn’t say gay. I like girls just fine in a pinch, but I’ll never give up frakking guys. Girls are just not the same.”

“Got that right.” He shrugged off the embarrassment he felt talking to Kara about this. “So if it’s not the not telling your parents thing, what is it?”

“You’re a man.”

“Last time I checked.” To try to make her smile, he even pulled at the waist of his shorts and looked again. “Yep. Still a man.”

“That’s kind of the problem.”

“I don’t get it. It’s never been a problem before. Is it because we frakked? Is it making you uncomfortable?”

“Not…” She turned her head. “Of course not, Lee! Frak’s sake.”

“Then what is it? Just spit it out, Kara!”

She growled at him. “Fine. I can’t get off, okay? I’ve been having a run of bad luck with guys, and when I’m alone, I keep getting to the same place - right before I come.”

Lee held his hands up. “Oh, no. Not touching that.”

“What the frak, Lee! I helped you. I _frakked_ you to help you. I’m not even asking you to touch me, really. Not _really_ …”

“What does ‘not really’ mean?”

“I can do the work, but I need a little - ambiance, so to speak.”

“Quit draggin’ it out, Kara. Just tell me what you want.”

“Sit up against the headboard, and let me lean back on you while I do it.”

“How’s that gonna do any good?”

“You’re a man, Lee. You feel like one, you smell like one, you sound like one. Like I said, ambiance.”

“Sit there and hold you while you masturbate.”

“You can even close your eyes so you don’t have to watch.”

“Is it going to take long? I have an exam tomorrow.”

“Lords, Lee. Just...never mind. Go back to studying. I’ll even rewrite the page I messed up. Hand it over.”

He tried. He really did. But he kept remembering how humiliated he’d been to ask Kara to pretend to be his girlfriend when he went home for Solstice, much less suggest they should frak. She hadn’t even batted an eye. Dialed up gay porn for him. Hadn’t brought it up even once, and Kara was a master at finding his weak spots and exploiting them. “Gods,” he muttered. “Fine. Let’s just get it over with.”

“Are you serious?”

He didn’t answer, just shoved the rest of their books off the bed and put all the pillows against the headboard of her rack. “Let’s go, Thrace. You’ll be in a better mood after, anyway. Maybe I can hit you up for something good.”

She caught his eyes and smirked. “You might wanna close your eyes, Adama. I’m going to get naked.”

“I’ve seen everything you’ve got. I’m not afraid of some skin.”

“That’s not how it sounded last time.” She pulled her shirt over her head, leaving her in a lacy bra and shorts, the former of which he noted was _not_ regulation. Afraid or not, he averted his eyes, deciding he’d rather make sure his nails were clean than watch Kara undress. When she crawled into the rack, he put his hands behind his back to keep from touching her. She settled in, wiggling to get comfortable, then said, “Lee? You’re going to have to touch me a little.”

“Huh?”

She snickered and reached behind her for his wrists. She pulled them forward and put his hands on her thighs. “Just right there, okay? Nothing weird.” His fingertips dug into her legs, and she made a rumbly sound. “Maybe do that every once in a while.”

Lee looked around the room, searching for something that would distract him from what Kara was about to do, finally deciding to close his eyes. There was nowhere he could look that she wouldn’t be in his peripheral vision.

At first, all he could feel was her moving: the muscles in her back shifting under her skin, the brush of her elbow against his inner arm, the tickle of her hair on his chin and cheeks. Then her breathing changed, her ribs expanding and contracting into the curve of his belly, the very slight whoosh as she began to breathe through her mouth. 

Her scent got more...something he couldn’t identify. He hadn’t really paid much attention to how girls smelled, not even Kara, though he was around her enough to recognize her odor in a lot of situations. Now that he could connect the aroma to the circumstances, he knew she’d been turned on around him before, and wondered if the reason she’d helped him out before was because she’d wanted to sleep with him. Probably not. Kara was nothing if not upfront about getting her “needs” met. She wouldn’t have let a “little” thing like him being gay stop her. He kind of liked that about her; if she’d wanted him, she would have said so, and when he said no, she would have moved on without any hard feelings.

He was brought back to his surroundings by a little whimper, something he’d have sworn couldn’t possibly have come out of Kara Thrace, except he’d heard it before. He didn’t want to know what she was doing, but he could still see what she’d looked like in the hotel room. Her skin was flushed. In another minute or two, little beads of moisture would pop up - not enough to be actual sweat, but enough to taste if a person wanted to. Not that he wanted to.

He moved his hands on her thighs, nothing but brushing toward her knees and back toward her hips, but it was enough for her.

“Yes. Please…”

Toward her knees again, and he dug his thumbs into the skin just above.

“Oh. Gods.”

He wasn’t sure about what he was doing, but he lifted one hand and spread it out on her belly, his thumb pointing up between her breasts. Not touching anything, of course. “Lean back, Kara.”

She relaxed into him, and a wave of pleasure, pride, swept through him. Kara didn’t let many people in, but she was trusting him. Had enough to ask for this, and now counted on him enough to let herself be vulnerable. “That’s it.” He dropped his head forward, his cheek against hers, his chin on her shoulder.

The softness of her forearm slid over his. The skin under his hand was silkier than he was used to, but still covered muscles honed by training, and the quiver in those muscles as she approached climax wasn’t so different, either. He wasn’t going to randomly change his mind and be attracted to girls, as if that’s how it worked, but he had to keep himself distracted somehow, and cataloguing the physiological differences seemed like a good plan. He wanted to ask Kara if this was helping, but was afraid if he did, it would interrupt any momentum she had going. He definitely didn’t want her to have to start over.

Then again...Kara leaned back harder and moaned softly. He was suddenly acutely aware that he was aroused. What the frak was he supposed to do with that?

Kara’s cheek rubbed his, and she whispered, “Put some pressure on me, Lee. Dig your fingers in or something. Gods, please?”

He flexed both hands, one still on her inner thigh and the other on her stomach.

She began to rock a little, her hips chasing her hand probably, much the same as when he was masturbating. In his shorts, his cock slid in the groove of her ass, and he had to bite his lip to keep his focus. Getting himself off wasn’t what this was supposed to be about. 

Kara’s head fell back completely, her face turned in to his neck. Her breath was coming in gusts, hot against his skin, and he angled his face toward hers almost without thinking about it. He was taken by surprise when her free hand yanked at his jaw, bringing his lips to hers. Her body jerked, and low, wordless cries escaped her throat as she kissed him hard.

She slumped, panting heavily. After a very long moment, Kara stretched like a cat and turned to him with a lazy grin. “Gods. I needed that. You have no idea.” She reached up and pecked his lips. “Thank you.” When she leaned back against him again, she intertwined her fingers with his. “So, do you want me to take care of that for you, Lee?”

For a second or two, he was clueless, and when he realized she was talking about his erection, he blushed to the roots of his hair. “Um…”

“It’s okay, Lee. It’s a perfectly natural human reaction.” She glanced up at him. “Do you want me to, or not?”

He recovered his equilibrium enough to ask, “What exactly are you offering, Kara? I’m not magically straight today.”

Kara laughed as she got up and turned around. “I don’t want to frak you, Lee, so you can stop worrying. It wasn’t all that much fun.”

He frowned. _Should I be offended by that?_

“I was talking about a blow job. A mouth’s a mouth, Lee, and if you close your eyes, you can pretend I’m somebody else.” She got this twinkle in her eye and he was instantly just a little bit afraid. “Helo, maybe.” When he blushed again, she put her hands on his face and kissed him again, light and almost playful. “You’re not as subtle as you think, Lee Adama. Now, do you want a blow job or not?”

When the frak was he going to wake up and find this whole day was all some very bizarre dream? Since when did his friendship with Kara include sex? Sweet Lords of Kobol. He dropped his head back onto the headboard and closed his eyes. This was all his fault.

“Should I take that as a yes?”

He nodded, afraid if he said anything, it would remind him that this was all too real. He sighed as he realized that once Kara was done _giving you a blowjob, Lee, let’s call it what it is_ , he was going to be useless for at least an hour. 

Her hands were strong, the hands of a pilot. He groaned when her tongue touched him. She was right. It didn’t feel any different.


	3. Chapter 3

Ever since that day, and he didn’t know what else to call it: _That Day_ , Kara’d been different. More open with her affection. Touching him more - not in a sexual way, just more often. Easier to read. It was like some invisible wall had been between them and now it wasn’t there anymore. He didn’t know whether he’d changed or she had. Either way, their friendship had changed course, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

He was okay with her touching him. He didn’t like thinking about the way he noticed how she smelled now, all the time. It wasn’t something he’d ever considered a thing, but he thought he could pick Kara out of a crowd now, by smell alone, and that kinda freaked him out. The one thing he did like, most definitely, is that he could predict her moods better, see something coming and head her off, move her in a different direction. She’d been getting in fewer fights, and that had to be a good thing for her disciplinary record.

The other side of the coin, though, was that she could read him better, too, and she caught a whole lot more of his sexual signals, signals he’d had no idea he was putting out. She was beginning to learn his type. He was afraid she was getting ready to start setting him up on dates, and that was just so not happening. He couldn’t date men openly, not at the Academy. Fleet didn’t care about his sexual preferences, or anyone else’s, but they did care about their shining stars, current and former, and everything he did got back to “Husker,” one way or another. Lee Adama dating men was in the “No way” column as far as his dad finding out was concerned.

To redirect her from setting him up, he asked her to go out with him - dinner and a movie. She laughed at him, but said yes, then gave him a funny look when he said they were going somewhere nice, so she had to dress up.

The evening went well; they’d been eating and going to movies together nearly as long as they’d been friends, so they had plenty to talk about. As they approached the end of the evening, though, Lee got more and more nervous. He wasn’t sure he wanted to do it, much less how Kara would react if he did.

They walked to the dorm from the parking lot, and he grabbed her hand as they went up the stairs toward their suite. Kara looked at him sideways, but didn’t say anything. He pulled out his key to let them in, and she let go of his hand to walk in ahead of him.

She started to kick off her shoes and go to her room.

“Kara, wait.”

“Yeah?” She stopped unbuckling her shoes and stood up.

“Come here.”

She walked back toward him, stopping right in front of him. He stepped closer and put his hand on her jaw. It flexed under his fingers. He bent his head. Not much - Kara was nearly as tall as he was anyway, and with those shoes...

“What are you doing, Lee?” Her eyes flashed at him, or seemed to.

“I just want to try something, Kara.” He waited a beat, and when she didn’t back off, he kissed her. She didn’t move, so he angled his head and opened his mouth a little, the way he would if he were kissing a guy. _Helo, for instance,_ Kara’s voice said in his head. He groaned. It wasn’t quite the same - Helo was about six inches taller than he was, for one thing. And he’d never had any indication that Helo swung that way, or whether he was the more dominant partner, or...Kara bit his lip, bringing his attention back to her.

She pulled back, snickering. “I know you weren’t thinking about me just then.”

Lee could feel his ears turning red. Good thing they hadn’t flipped the lights on when they’d come in. She took another step back, and he reached out to grab her hand. “Sorry. That was stupid.”

“Were you trying to prove something to yourself, Lee? Be polite and kiss your date at the door? I don’t expect anything from you just because we’ve frakked, you know. Not like that, anyway.”

“No, I -” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know. It’s just that - well, ever since _that day_ all these weird things have been going through my head, and I just wondered. It’s not like I’ve been with all that many guys. I’ve always had to work too hard to keep it a secret.”

“So…you’re wondering if you’re actually gay?”

“Not exactly. I know I’m attracted to guys. I’ve never been attracted to a woman before.”

“Before? As in you are now? Or you’re trying to figure out if you are now?” Her voice was neutral, the tone she used when she was holding everything back, when she didn’t want to let anything slip. He hated that tone, especially when she used it with him.

Gods. He was frakking up their friendship with his stupid dithering. “Frak! I’m sorry, Kara. I won’t -”

“No, wait. Did you figure anything out? Did that kiss tell you anything? Because I have to say, it wasn’t your best work. Or mine. Do you want to try again?”

“You’d let me?”

“Of course, Lee.” She stepped in closer again and put her hand on his chest, pushing him backward. When he hit the wall, she plastered herself against him and worked an arm around his waist. “Do your worst, Adama.”

Lee leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers. It didn’t take Kara long to take over. He worked to keep his mind on her, the feel and smell and taste of her, to shut out any stray thoughts about Helo. As if she’d sensed that his mind was drifting, she pinched his side. He jumped. “Ouch. What the frak was that for?”

“If you’re gonna kiss me, kiss _me_. Stop thinkin’ about Helo.”

“Frak.”

“Maybe we should just quit. If you can’t kiss me without thinkin’ about Helo, you probably oughta be kissing him.”

“I wish.” Shit. He definitely should not have said that out loud.

“You do. He’s a good kisser.”

“What? Frak, Kara!”

She giggled. Kara Thrace _giggled_. “He’s hot, Lee. You think I didn’t make my move? Pretty sure he swings both ways, though, and I didn’t frak him, so you can be first.” She waited a beat, then said, “Unless you want to do him together.”

He choked. “How are we even talking about this?”

“It’s dark, so you feel safe sharing secrets. Or you’ve been repressed for so long you can’t keep it inside anymore. Frak if I know, Lee. Did you figure it out, Lee, or do you need to kiss me ag-”

He held her face in his hands and kissed her hard, opening his mouth almost immediately. He ruthlessly pushed out anything that wasn’t kissing Kara. When somebody moaned, and he realized it wasn’t him, but Kara, he felt a sense of accomplishment. His heart raced in his chest, and he pulled his lips away.

Kara was panting. He was…well, he wasn’t exactly burning to frak her, but he wasn’t turned off, either, if he was honest. Kara was still close enough he could feel her breath on his chin.

“Well, that one didn’t suck.” She used the tone of voice he was coming to learn meant she was uncomfortable.

Still, he couldn’t resist teasing her. “I noticed.”

“Oh, frak you!”

He grinned. “Still not straight, Kara.”

“Oh, my gods, Lee.” She squeezed his bicep and fake-leered at him. “So, now that we’ve figured out you’re a passable kisser, can I go to bed?”

“Passable? That wasn’t me moaning a minute ago.” He had no idea where this sudden urge to push her had come from, but since she hadn’t stepped out of his space yet, he figured he’d keep going. Besides, it was usually him off-balance, not Kara. This was kinda fun.

“I was not moaning.” She was smiling, though.

“Uh-huh.” He started walking her backward toward her door. “You want me to help you put your jammies on? Tuck you in?”

“Really, Lee? Jammies?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t need help getting ready for bed. I can get undressed all by myself.”

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for going out tonight. And for letting me -”

“Experiment?” She laughed. “You can experiment with me anytime, Lee.”

“Hey, Kara?”

“What now, Lee?”

“How come you never bring guys here? I know you’ve got this reputation, but I’ve actually never seen you with a guy except dancing at the clubs.”

She turned serious and shrugged. “I don’t want ‘em here. Don’t want anybody getting any ideas.”

“So it’s not because of me? Because you think I won’t approve or something?”

“Has nothing whatsoever to do with you. If I frak ‘em someplace else, I can leave any time I want. Besides, why the frak should I care whether or not you approve, Lee? Can I go to bed now?”

“Yeah.” Lee pulled her in for a hug. He luxuriated in the moment, the feel of her quiet and breathing against him. He held her tighter and she leaned her cheek on his shoulder. They stood like that for a couple of minutes before she pulled away. 

“Night, Kara.”

The smile she tossed over her shoulder was softer than usual. “Night, Lee.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

A week later, Lee found a note on his bed.

_Invited Helo over for Triad. He’s bringing the ambrosia. Wear your prettiest underwear, Lee._ There was a giant winking smiley face instead of her signature.

Sweet Lords of Kobol. What was she doing?

When Kara came out to set up the table that night, Lee almost laughed. He was wearing socks, shoes, sweats, and both tanks, and Kara was wearing sweats and a tank. No bra, no shoes. Maybe even no panties. Brazen confidence.

“You really think you’re that good, Kara?”

She looked over at him, then down at her clothes. “I never said it was strip Triad, Lee, though if we play that way, maybe the point is to get naked as fast as possible. Ever think of that?” She stuck her tongue out at him.

He turned that thought over in his head. In point of fact, she _hadn’t_ said it would be strip Triad. He’d just assumed based on her suggestion to wear pretty underwear. Not that he had any. Sixteen pair of regulation boxer briefs. Gods. He was so boring. “Okay, fine. Need me to do anything?”

“Do we have ice?”

“How much do we need?”

“A bucket ought to be enough.”

He grabbed the bucket off the shelf. “I’ll run fill it up, then.”

He was pulling the door shut behind him when she yelled, “And put on some lip balm. Lips slide better that way, Lee!”

Gods. He was going to regret this. He could tell already.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kara loved that she had Lee off-balance, had him wondering. Truth be told, she’d been thinking a lot herself, ever since she’d spouted off after their “date” the other night. _Unless you want to do him together._ She was attracted to Helo, sure, but what had her getting off every night was the image of Lee and Helo kissing, working each other’s clothes off, rubbing their naked bodies, cocks, together. Still, the thought of frakking Helo _and_ Lee? Gods. Even now, she was already wet.

And she hadn’t told Lee the truth the other night. Well, not all of it. She didn’t bring guys home mostly because when she was done, she wanted to walk away. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. The part she hadn’t told Lee, hadn’t even admitted to herself until recently, was that if she brought guys to their suite, he’d notice she had a type. A type that looked remarkably like him. When she’d realized she’d been frakking Lee in her head for two years, she’d wanted to smack herself. Their friendship was important to her. She didn’t want to frak it up. But he’d made the first move last winter and opened up all kinds of possibilities, and her imagination and libido had gone wild. She’d never masturbated so much in her life as she had since they’d frakked. 

Someone knocked on the door. Could only be Helo. She yanked it open. “Hey!” He held out the ambrosia bottles. “Oooh. The good stuff. I love you.” She smiled, put her arm around his shoulder and lifted onto her toes to kiss his cheek. He very smoothly moved so she landed on his lips instead. Frak, the man could kiss. She pulled away, still grinning, heart beating a little out of control, and gestured toward the table. “Lee ran to get some ice.” _She_ needed some frakking ice. What was her problem lately? Oh, right. Lee Adama. And Karl Agathon. And their nightly nude appearances in her fantasies.

The door started to open, and she muttered, “He gonna kiss Lee hello, too?” He couldn’t have heard her, but he went to the counter with the ambrosia as Lee went to set the ice bucket down, and he grabbed Lee’s chin and plastered a kiss on him. A part of her mind catalogued that Lee was almost instantly hard, but the other part of her mind was screaming, frak, frak, frak, frak, frak! It’s hotter than I imagined. She had to ball her hand into a fist and turn away to avoid sticking her hand down her own pants before she’d dealt even one round.

She flopped into a chair, squirming uncomfortably, and Helo left a dazed Lee at the counter to come sit down. He looked at her and winked, and she knew she hadn’t managed to hide a thing from him. She squeezed her hands around the deck of cards to stop the trembling. _Get a grip, Kara._

The evening progressed nicely. Kara won more than she’d lost, even when she wasn’t dealing, so it wasn’t like they could accuse her of cheating. They were three-quarters of the way through the first bottle of ambrosia when Helo suggested they make the next round special. “Truth or Dare, only the first round is Truth.”

She hated Truths, but she kept the smile on her face and agreed. Helo dealt the cards.

~*~*~*~*~*~

They all laid down their cards, and somehow Kara had the lowest hand. Lee didn’t know how he’d beat her; he’d been distracted by Helo’s foot playing with his leg under the table, and by his mind’s insistence on reliving that kiss when he’d come back to their suite. When Helo asked Kara the Truth question, Lee looked up sharply, sure he hadn’t heard right.

Kara was still staring at Helo, and Helo repeated it. “How hot does it make you, Kara, thinking about the two of us frakking?”

Lee stuck a hand in his lap, hoping Helo wouldn’t ask him that, because just the question had him suddenly hard as a rock again. He snuck another look at Kara, and he was fascinated by the color rising in her face. He’d never seen Kara blush before.

Helo laughed quietly, and asked, “Would you rather have a dare?” Lee wasn’t surprised when she nodded without speaking, but he was downright shocked by Helo’s next words.

“I dare you to watch us kiss without touching yourself. Hands on the table.”

Oh, frak. He suspected the look of not-quite terror on Kara’s face was mirrored on his own. Lee looked at Helo, wondering if he was just frakking with Kara, and he jumped when Helo reached out and yanked his chair closer. Hells, he was strong!

“Hands on the table, Kara.”

Lee watched her put her hands on the table. Flat first, then quickly balling them up into fists. Helo grabbed his chin again, like he’d done earlier, and Lee was lost. His last semi-coherent thought was that Kara’d been right. Lips did slide better with lip balm.

Helo’s lips were gone, and Lee opened his eyes, feeling a little foolish sitting there with his lips still pursed and open. But the look in Helo’s eyes burned away that feeling and replaced it with something much harder to dismiss. Desire coursed through his body, setting all his nerves alight until he was practically vibrating with it.

He looked at Kara to avoid spontaneously combusting, and Kara was all but digging her nails into the table, breasts jiggling under her tank from her uneven breathing, biting her lip. She reached out a shaky hand to pick up her ambrosia glass and down it. How had Helo known she wanted to watch them? He looked down at the cards in front of him, then at Helo, who seemed entirely unaffected by the whole thing. Lee had a sudden almost irresistible urge to tackle Helo to the ground and do something, anything, that would erase that affable expression from his face.

“You guys ready for another round?”

Lee managed to say, “Yes,” and Kara just nodded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A game of Triad devolves into Truth or Dare, and Kara never turns down a Dare.

Kara casually downed another shot. She had four up - Kings - and though she wasn’t certain, she was pretty sure it would be the winning hand. Lee was distracted, flushed, and Helo was slumped lazily in his chair, pretending not to pay attention. She didn’t know what kind of truth - or dare - she’d put forth, but whatever it was couldn’t leave her as desperate to get off as watching the two of them kissing for a couple of minutes had. Gods. Even now, nearly an hour later, she wanted to jump up and run to the head and rub one out. This had been the longest frakking hand of Triad ever.

“Call,” she said, tossing a couple of chips into the pile. The chips were meaningless now, more to keep track of whose turn it was than anything else. She stuck her chin in her hand.

Lee laid down his cards. Three on a run. That left Helo. He laid down a two. Okay. Good so far. Then a three. Same color. Frak. Did he have Half Colors? He laid the other two cards down and Kara groaned. “Frak.”

Helo grinned at her, then turned to Lee. “Truth, then, Lee?”

If Kara hadn’t been watery-limbed with relief, she’d have laughed at the expression on Lee’s face. But she knew Helo’d come back to her.

Lee nodded and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah.”

Helo sat back in his seat, tapping a finger on his lips. Kara was pretty sure it was all affected. He’d wanted to play this, so he had questions all ready to fire at them. He was just torturing them. He poured shots all the way around and waited until Lee had drunk his.

“How many times in the last week have you jacked off thinking about me?”

Lee’s mouth dropped open and he turned completely red.

“That many? Wow.” He turned to Kara and she swallowed. He crooked a finger at her.

“What?” She wasn’t sure she could actually stand up at the moment. The image of Lee…gods. She was frakked. 

“Come here.”

“Why?”

He tilted his head. “Have you ever turned down a dare, Kara?”

“Of course not,” she snorted.

“Then it doesn’t matter why, does it?”

He had a point. Damn him anyway. She stood up and walked around the table, then quirked an eyebrow.

He patted his leg. “Sit down.”

What the frak was he going to do? She perched uncomfortably on his knee.

“Relax, Kara. You’re gonna be a while.” He put an arm around her waist and pulled her tight against him.

Her feet weren’t even touching the floor. She hadn’t realized until now quite how big he was. She looked at Lee, hoping for some reassurance or something, but he was clearly still thrown by Helo’s question. “What am I doing here, Helo?”

He put his hand on her chin and pulled her face around for a rough kiss, scraped the edge of his jaw on the spot on the side of her neck that drove her insane, and whispered in her ear, “I dare you to be quiet, Kara. Not a sound.”

She opened her mouth to protest, and snapped it shut again. His chuckle vibrated against the tiny hairs on the back of her neck, and she sucked in her bottom lip and ran her tongue back and forth. She could be quiet. She could. But what was he going to do to try and make her talk?

She closed her eyes for a moment, and it was just too much, so she watched Lee instead, hoping he could keep her balanced. Helo nuzzled the side of her neck again, and she didn’t quite catch herself before she leaned her head away to give him more room.

“That’s it,” he said, tugging lightly at her earlobe with his teeth.

His hands settled on her upper thighs, flat and warm and big and she wanted those hands somewhere else, and all he’d done was kiss her. She was doomed.

He nibbled on her neck, back and forth, back and forth, the rhythm so mesmerizing she didn’t notice at first one of his hands was under her tank top. He kept to the same motion with his hand, too, and every inch of her tingled in response. Was he some kind of magician? He hadn’t really done anything yet, and she felt like she was about to burst out of her skin. His hand moved to her side, smoothing up and down her ribs, the flat of his thumb grazing her nipple every so often. She bit down harder on her lip, kept her gaze locked onto Lee.

Helo’s other hand moved suddenly, dipping under the waist of her sweats and pushing them down. Liquid heat pooled between her legs, and she was nearly desperate for his fingers to go all the way down, give her some relief, but he kept stopping just short of her bikini line and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from protesting.

He rumbled low in her ear. “You want more?”

What the frak kind of question was that? She opened her mouth to answer, and he put a finger over her lips. She could smell herself on him, could smell ambrosia, and Lee, and she flicked her tongue out to wrap it around his finger.

He groaned low in her ear. “You might have to make good on that later. You up for that?”

She pulled his finger into her mouth in response, rolling her tongue around it before giving it a strong suck. He got hard under her ass, and she shifted.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” He didn’t wait for her to answer - she wouldn’t have anyway - but palmed one breast and sank his fingers all the way into her sweats.

Just from the way his fingers were slipping and sliding, she knew she was hotter and wetter than she’d been in a very long time. Lee was breathing heavy, his eyes losing focus, and she wondered what he was seeing that was affecting him. She reached out a hand at the same time Helo asked, “You want him to touch you?” and she froze mid-reach, uncertain if Lee would want that, and even more uncertain she could stay quiet if both of them were touching her.

She bit her lip, looked at Lee hoping to see an answer in his eyes, but his out-of-focus gaze was locked somewhere below her face. Helo’s hand moved, two fingers teasing at her pussy, the ball of his thumb brushing ever so lightly on her clit. She wanted to push his fingers inside her, grind the edge of his hand on her clit, and not doing it took an immense effort. She dug her fingers into his thighs, closed her eyes, and made herself breathe.

He laughed in her ear. “Having a little trouble, Kara? Lee is. Look at him. He’s so turned on he doesn’t know what to do first.”

She opened her eyes, watched Lee palm himself through his pants, and had a sudden urge to see him naked again, to curl up beside him all sweaty and satisfied. She reminded herself it hadn’t been that good when they’d frakked, but it seemed better in her memory.

She put her hand on Helo’s arm, followed it up underneath her tank. Gods, his hands were big! Big and warm, strong fingers. Fingers she wanted inside her. She bit back a moan. Helo’s mouth was on her neck again, lips, then tongue, then teeth, then tongue again. She shivered. Helo grazed over her clit, harder, dipped his fingers just barely inside, then back out, and she gasped.

She let her head fall back onto Helo’s shoulder, eyes on Lee, feeling the tease build up in her tighter and hotter and it might take a long time to come this way, but she had a feeling it would be the best orgasm she’d ever had.

How far were they taking this dare? If she shoved her shirt off, would they reciprocate? If they all got naked, would they frak? She didn’t let herself think past that, but pulled Helo’s hand out of her pants, pushed up from his lap, and tore her tank over her head. She stood there, panting and tingling and desperate for something, and he sat there, a maddening smirk on his face. The smirk went away at the same time she felt Lee standing up behind her. Was he going to take his shirt off, too? Please, gods, let him! A tiny whoosh, and she closed her eyes as Lee stepped in close, the skin of his chest hot against her back. He wrapped his arms around her and nipped her shoulder. Kara jumped, didn’t quite hold the sound in this time, and Helo grinned again.

“You held out longer than I thought you would, Kara.” He reached out and pulled at Lee’s arm, forcing them both closer to him. “We done playing cards?” He teased a knuckle over her nipple, and she sucked in a hard breath.

Lee kissed up her shoulder to her ear. “Is this okay, Kara? Me touching you like this?”

He sounded so uncertain, and she nodded. She held her hand out to Helo, curving her fingers to tell him to get up. He stood and crowded them, leaning back to get his shirt off, then stepping closer again. Lee’s warmth on her back and his cock pushing against her ass, Helo pressed into her breasts and belly and hips, Kara was lost for words. She tipped her head up for a kiss.

Helo kissed her long enough to have her shifting from foot to foot, then let go and turned her around, putting his hands over her breasts and pulling her back against his chest. “Kiss her, Lee.”

She looked at Lee. They’d only ever kissed those few times. Did he want to do this? He looked over her shoulder and nodded, then put his hands on her face like he’d done the other night. He started slower, though, taking his time, and she slid her palms up his arms, gripping his biceps. One of Helo’s hands dropped into her sweats, his thick, long fingers finally hitting her right where she wanted. She moaned, and Lee stopped kissing her to smile. Helo pushed harder and her eyes fluttered. Her head fell back onto his shoulder. His arm went tight around her, holding her in place easily, keeping her from twisting out of his grasp.

Hands on her breasts. Her eyes popped open. Lee was touching her, his gaze intent, flipping back and forth between her face and his hands, as if trying to gauge whether his efforts were working. She rewarded him with a tiny nod. When he pinched both nipples moments later, she moaned, loudly enough to embarrass herself. Waves of sensation rushed over her skin as she climaxed. She shuddered, chest heaving, smushed between the two boys. She grinned at nothing in particular and pulled Lee in for a sloppy kiss.

When she could sort of breathe again, they were still watching her and each other. “Who’s next, guys? I can’t have all the fun.”

Helo’s chuckle rumbled through her back, and Lee gave her that half-grin he got when he was pleased about something goofy. One of Helo’s hands shot out and pulled Lee in. Kara moved her head back to Helo’s shoulder and watched.

Frak. It’d been pretty before, but damn. Up close and personal, it was scorching. Both guys were hard as rocks, and she shifted as much as she could, rubbing them both against her. Helo looked like he was devouring Lee and Gods!

She stuck her hand between them and worked her way into Lee’s pants. Lee moaned and put his hand down on top of hers, holding her in place. He broke away from Helo’s kiss and panted, “Too much, Kara. I’m too close.”

She couldn’t resist teasing him. “Been too long since it was anyone else’s hands on your cock, Lee?”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. “I could ask you the same thing.”

She laughed. “Too long since someone else’s hands were on my cock? Well…”

“Shut up, Kara.”

“Do the two of you do this all the time? It’s kind of adorable, like you’re an old married couple.”

She smacked Helo’s leg, and he laughed at her. “Why don’t we take this to someone’s rack? With fewer clothes?”

She tilted her head to look at him. “All three of us? Is that -”

“Yes.” Lee. Decisive and firm. Damn. That was kind of sexy. She hoped he didn’t make a habit of it. She’d probably flunk out, since she’d never come out of her room. She’d been having enough trouble remembering her best friend was gay lately. He didn’t need to get sexier.

Their suite was on a building corner, and Lee’s room was slightly larger. Aside from that, Kara kind of didn’t want either of them in her room at the moment; there were clothes all over the floor, and she was pretty sure she’d left her vibrator on her bed. Standing in front of the bed, Lee and Helo looked at each other, and Kara rolled her eyes. She put her arms around Lee’s neck and whispered, “You want Helo to kiss you or blow you?”

His hands dug into her waist, and she pulled back to look at him. His mouth was working, but nothing was coming out. She snickered. While she’d been teasing Lee, Helo had shucked his shoes and sweats and gotten on the bed. He was lying against the wall propped up on an elbow. She hadn’t had the opportunity to peek at him in the shower like she had with Lee, and he was just as covered in muscle as Lee was. Only taller. And frak, was she ready. “Get on the bed, Lee.” She stood behind him to push him, but reached down to shove his sweats down first. “Now.” She caught Helo’s eyes and he winked at her.

She followed Lee in a tangle of limbs, and she and Helo laughed while they sorted themselves out. She thought maybe Lee was still dumbstruck by the idea of actually being in bed with Helo. She cuddled up to his back, pressing him tighter between them.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t dreaming. He was pinned between Kara and a nearly naked Helo, who was kissing him like the worlds were going to end tomorrow. Kara’s lips, soft on his spine, made him shiver. He groaned when she scraped her blunt fingernails up his thigh and around his hip. She pressed a knee between his, and the incongruity of her sweats on the insides of his thighs made him pause - she was the only one who still had clothes on. Then she snuck her hand into his briefs, her fingers caressing the skin of his lower belly, not quite touching his cock, and Helo’s hand joined hers seconds later, gripping him firmly, and Lee’s mind went fuzzy. Kara was gentle on his balls, and Helo was pumping him roughly, and he whimpered into Helo’s mouth as he came.

As his breathing and heartbeat calmed, he became more aware of the other two people in bed with him. Kara’s hand was flat on his belly, her hips rutting into his ass. Helo was still kissing him, lazier and more slowly. He didn’t know what to do for Kara. He’d never gotten much past kissing a girl before her. Not that he had all that much experience with men, either. He put a hand on Helo’s hip, slid his fingertips up his side, then his palm up his arm and shoulder to his neck. Muscles everywhere. When Helo hummed at the contact, Lee got bolder and gently plowed his fingers into Helo’s hair and scooched closer. Helo’s cock was hard and insistent on his hip. Everything felt so good.

Kara’s hand left his stomach and Helo stopped kissing him for a moment. “Mmm. Kara. That’s -” He closed his eyes. “Yeah.” He looked beautiful, and Lee wanted desperately to watch him fall apart.

Kara must’ve had the same thought, because she levered herself higher in the bed. She kissed the side of his neck, then murmured, “Lee - I want - do you want to blow him? I do, but if you wanna be first…”

He looked at Helo, hooded eyes avidly watching the two of them, and smiled. “You can go first. How -”

She tugged at his ear. “Leave that to me. Keep kissing him.”

Gladly.

He pulled Helo in again, nibbled at his lips a little to get them back into it. His back was colder when Kara moved. Her hand slid down his leg and pushed him gently until he wiggled backward a little. She laid down between them, her head at hip level, and pulled his leg over her waist. He snugged up to her back, his partially erect cock fitting perfectly into the dip of her spine.

Helo moaned into his mouth, and part of him wanted to watch, see what Kara was doing, know what turned Helo on most, but mostly he just wanted to keep kissing him. Helo kissed him harder and they got rougher until his mouth dropped open.

“Ohhhhh.”

The drawn-out moan coupled with the way Helo was panting now and the sound of Kara’s hand and mouth on Helo had Lee fully erect in seconds. He touched Helo’s neck and face, watching as arousal erased his usual easy smile. Lee bucked against Kara and she moaned. Could he get off this way? Would Kara let him? As if she’d heard him, she tugged at his knee to bring him in tighter. He moved his hand down Helo’s arm and gripped low on his hip and frakked against Kara’s back.

The muscles under his hand flexed and rolled. Helo grabbed at his neck and ground their mouths together for a moment, then buried his face in Lee’s neck, a litany of whimpered _oh_ s heralding his climax. When Helo’s hand on his arm relaxed, Lee grabbed Kara’s shoulder and frakked harder and faster into her back until his mind went blank and he came again.

Several long moments passed with him and Helo idly kissing each other, Kara quiet between them. Her hair tickled his thigh when she moved. She put her hand on his on her shoulder and pulled it closer to kiss his palm.

Helo cleared his throat. “You okay down there, Kara?”

“Mmm.”

Helo’s lopsided smile at her answer was broken by a wide yawn, which set Lee off. It had been a long week, and it was past midnight. What was the etiquette for post-coital sleep? His sexual history was woefully inadequate on the subject.

Kara half sat up with her back mostly to them. “Gotta hit the head.” 

She scrambled off the end of his bed without looking at either of them. Was she mad? Was he supposed to have said something? Had he done something wrong? His chest tightened, and he jumped when Helo ran a hand down his arm.

“Relax. She’ll be back.” He tugged at Lee’s arm. “C’mon. You can be the little spoon.”

Lee turned over and scooted back into Helo’s warmth. He dozed for a while, listening to the sound of Helo’s even breathing, waiting for Kara to come back. By the time he fell asleep, she was still gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kara felt like an idiot. She’d just had her first threesome. And maybe it hadn’t gone exactly like she’d expected, but it had been good, really good. She’d gotten to be squished between two of her favorite men, the two who made her girly parts tingle just from hearing their voices. And what was she doing? She was hiding in the damn bathroom because she was jealous. Even without being able to see everything, she could tell that for Lee, being with Helo had been so far beyond being with her, the two experiences weren’t even in the same planetary orbit. Obviously, she hadn’t turned him off tonight, but what had gotten him off was Helo. If she’d ever had a clearer indication someone wasn’t into her, she didn’t remember it.

What made it worse was listening to the two of them coming had gotten her all hot and bothered again. She was achy and slippery and the idea of taking care of it herself made her want to punch someone. She looked at her empty wrist and wondered if she’d been in here long enough for them to have fallen asleep.

She left her room and quietly got the common area set to rights. Then, because she was still keyed up, she cleaned her own room, putting away all her clean clothes and piling up her laundry. Thank gods for BDUs and military issue underwear - she didn’t have to sort anything. She picked up her vibrator off the bed, gave it a disgusted look, and shoved it in her drawer. She stripped down, took a lukewarm shower, and collapsed face-down on her bed. She groaned into her pillow, wishing for sleep to erase her ridiculous longing for her best friend.

She’d have to get out tomorrow night and find some anonymous frak, one who _didn’t_ look like Lee, and get over this.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee rolled over restlessly, expecting to bump into Kara, but she wasn’t there. Helo was still behind him, radiating heat, but Kara’s side of the bed was cold, like she’d never been there at all. He got out of bed and padded to the head, pissed and washed his hands, and went to find Kara.

The common room was spotless, which he was pretty sure it had never been since they’d been assigned as roommates, and he stood there staring, wondering if maybe the entire night had been some kind of bizarre dream, and he was still in it. When he peeked into Kara’s room, the feeling intensified. No clothes. No books. No backpack in the middle of the floor.

Kara was splayed across her bed, face-down and naked. He walked over, pulled the bedding gently out from under her and covered her up. He sat down for a moment, watching her sleep, wondering if her being in here was because something had been wrong between them all tonight, or because it was just the way she was. He remembered her saying she liked to be the one to leave. Maybe she didn’t like cuddling after sex.

He frowned. That couldn’t be right. After they’d frakked last year, she’d been all snuggly, laughing at him for wanting her to put some clothes back on. He climbed over her and sat up against the headboard. Kara mumbled something and curled up with her head on his leg. He was still trying to figure things out when Helo came in, deliciously naked, and Lee looked up at him. “I didn’t want her to wake up alone.”

Helo nodded and crawled in on the outside, pulling the covers up over all of them. He was asleep again almost immediately. Lee sighed and moved Kara so he could lie down. As soon as he was settled, she tucked her face into her pillow and threw an arm over his chest. He fell asleep too quickly to wonder further about any of it.


	5. Chapter 5

She hoped this was a dream, because in her dreams, she always got a happy ending unless the alarm went off. In her dreams, there was no one to impress, no one to judge her. 

She stretched, inviting the hand to touch her some more. “Mmmm.”

“Hey, Kara?”

“Hmm?”

“Roll over.”

She rolled to her back and put her arms over her head to pull the pillow half over her face. The voices were muffled, but she could still hear them.

“Right here. See? Like this.” Fingers on her collarbone, then down the middle of her body to her navel. “And right here? Sensitive.” Featherlight touches on the undersides of her arms. “And here?” Someone’s mouth on her neck.

Kara smiled.

“See? She likes that.”

“What else?”

“You can touch her here…” Fingertips teasing her breasts. “See how the little hairs on her skin stand up? And if you use your tongue…” Someone licked her nipple, then blew on it.

“Girls like guys to play with their breasts? I mean, I know they do. Kara likes it.”

“What? You don’t? Wait. How do you know Kara likes it?”

No answer.

“You’re cute when you blush.”

“Frak off, Helo.”

Helo laughed. “So you and Kara have - I thought you were gay.”

“No. Well. Yes. Sort of have. And I am. Was. Maybe.”

“How do you _sort of_ frak each other?”

“I - can we not talk about it?” Lee’s voice was muffled, as if he were looking away when he spoke.

“Where’s Kara fit into all this?”

“Kara is my best friend. And…she confuses me. I’m not attracted to her. Wasn’t. But then we - and I don’t think about it **all** the time, but I find myself wondering how it would feel to make her - you know.”

“Come?”

“And I enjoyed last night. All of it.”

By this time, Kara was awake enough to realize she hadn’t been dreaming. Too bad. It had been a good dream while it lasted. She held the pillow tighter over her eyes and said, “Why are you guys in here?”

Helo answered. “We didn’t want you to sleep alone after last night.”

“Well, I was having a really good dream, so you guys need to shut up so I can go back to sleep.”

“But I was having so much fun showing Lee how to turn you on.”

“Do it without talking, because I’m going back to sleep.” She left the pillow on her head and turned to her side. “Where’s my covers? I’m cold.”

“Is she always this grouchy when she first wakes up?”

“How the frak should I know, Helo? We have separate rooms, remember?”

Someone pulled the covers up over her shoulder, and Helo said, “Maybe we can go to your room, then, so we can make out without disturbing Kara.”

She yanked the pillow off her head.

Helo laughed and touched the tip of her nose. “Gotcha.”

“Frakker.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

She wasn’t sure how it happened, but Helo became a fixture in their suite, gradually spending more and more time with them until he only went back to his own suite when they knew inspections were coming. And it wasn’t like all they did was frak. The three of them talked about everything.

The night Kara told them about her mom and the door, they both held her while she cried, and she ignored that they were crying, too. 

Lee talked about the pressure on him to be the best, to live up to Husker’s reputation as a soldier and a pilot. He hated that he was constantly being compared to someone else, someone who wasn’t even in the military anymore, and coming up short.

Helo - or Karl as they called him in private - always had funny stories about his parents or his sisters. He told them one night the worst part of coming to the Academy at first was the silence, but that he’d grown to enjoy it after the constant noise of his family. He missed touching, though; his family had always been a very touchy-feely group, and now no one touched him unless they were sparring or frakking. He missed people touching him for no reason.

The boys held Kara’s hands, and Karl kissed her knuckles a lot. She and Karl drilled Lee more often, so that he wouldn’t isolate so much when he was studying, and they dragged him out of the suite to go to a movie or play pyramid sometimes, even though he professed to hate the game. Kara and Lee touched Karl a lot - when they were studying or watching vids - and they all got used to sleeping together in a huddle more nights than not.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Solstice approached again. Kara could hardly believe it had been a year since Lee had come to her with his insane proposition. So much had changed. He had to go home again this year, and he said his dad had already asked if he was bringing “that Thrace girl” this year. She wondered if his dad had actually asked it in that snide tone of voice, but she thought probably not. His dad had seemed to really like her last year.

~*~*~

“She said she sent it last week and according to the tracking, it’ll be here tomorrow. We’re supposed to call on the vidscreen when it gets here, so they can watch us open our gifts. We’re all going to be here, right? We don’t leave for Lee’s dad’s until Monday?”

Kara nodded, not sure how she felt about people she’d never met giving her gifts, but Karl’s mom and sisters seemed really nice. She hadn’t talked much to his dad. He was away a lot - research or something. “Lee?”

“Huh? Yeah. I’ll be here.”

When the package came the next afternoon, Karl kicked the door shut and Kara tossed him her knife. He cut the package open and pulled everything out in excited abandon. Three for him, two for Lee, two for Kara, and one for all three of them.

They’d moved the table in the common room against the wall, and Karl set up his computer there, so they could all be in on the call. “Okay. You guys ready? It’ll take me a few minutes to connect, probably, but I’m gonna make the call now.”

Kara moved everybody’s gifts to the table and sat down, waiting for the call to go through.

His mom’s face was there, and she was smiling and talking, but the sound lagged, so it was like a silent movie for a minute or two. “...get in here! They’re calling! Girls, come on!” She turned back to the vidscreen. “Hi, Kara. Hi, Lee. Hi, baby.”

“Mom, c’mon.”

Kara said, “You always like it when _I_ call you baby, Karl.” Kara and his mom both laughed.

“Okay. The girls are all here.” She moved to the side, and Karl’s sisters all waved and called out hellos. “Open ‘em. Kara first.”

“Why me?”

“You’re the youngest. That’s the way it works in our family,” Karl told her.

Kara picked up one of her packages and shook it. It was soft, so she hadn’t expected it to make any noise, but she had to do it anyway. Not many of her surprises growing up had been pleasant ones, and she guessed maybe she’d never get out of that habit. She carefully tore open the ribbons and paper, and found a pair of gloves, only the tops of the fingers were missing. She tried them on. “Thank you!”

“I can see you’re a bit puzzled, Kara.”

“Maybe a little.”

“They’re arthritis gloves. Karl told me when your hands are cold, your fingers ache, and these are specially made to keep your joints warm so your hands don’t get stiff. You’re a pilot. You need your hands to work.”

Kara didn’t know what to say. No one had ever gotten her such a thoughtful gift. She sniffed.

“Aw mom. You made her cry.”

“I am not crying, Karl Agathon." She held her hands up to the vidscreen. "Thank you. I love them.”

“Now the other one!” one of his sisters called out.

Kara opened the other one a little less carefully, and found a kit for her cigars - a refillable lighter, a cigar cutter with her initials on it, and some odor-absorbing candles. “Thanks! This is so cool.”

“You’re welcome, Kara,” Karl’s mom said. “We’re so glad you like them.

“Now Karl!”

Karl tore into his gifts, tossing paper everywhere. Lee gave him a sour look, and Karl made a kissy face at him. One was a bottle of ambrosia. Karl told them his mother made a special batch every year. This one was from two years ago.

“You made this?” Kara asked as she examined the bottle. His mom nodded. “Wow.”

His second present was in an envelope - a check from his grandparents. “Karl, they told me you should spend at least half of it on something fun for the three of you.”

He held the check out to Kara and her eyes widened. They could do a lot of damage with half of that. The third gift Karl opened, then covered up again, his mouth hanging open. “Really?” He looked at his sisters.

Kara pried it out of his hands. Lube. Flavored lube. Several flavors. She snickered and gave his sisters two thumbs up. When she looked back at Karl, he was still red.

“It’s your turn, Lee!”

Lee looked reluctant to open his now that he’d seen Karl’s. He was as fastidious about opening his gifts as he was about keeping their suite clean, so he took longer to get his unwrapped than either Kara or Karl had. Kara was pretty sure she knew what the larger package was, since she’d talked to Karl’s mom about it last month.

“It’s a…holster?”

“For your camping trips, Lee! You wear it, like your gun holster, and your bits and pieces are right at hand when you need them,” Karl’s mom said.

“Oh! Yes. I can see that now. This is fantastic!” 

Lee beamed absently at the vidscreen, already absorbed in planning a trip, if Kara was any judge. He did love his “extreme” camping. She smiled and smacked him lightly. “You’ve got another present, Lee, and this call is expensive.”

“Oh! Right. Sorry, Karl.”

When he looked at Karl, Karl popped a kiss on his mouth, and Kara sighed. Even though it was a little peck, nothing sexual about it, it was still hot. They needed to get this call over with.

He picked up the smaller one and just as carefully picked apart the wrapping paper.

“Next year, we’re going to put all yours in bags with tissue paper, Lee!”

Kara’s eyes nearly fell out of her head when Lee stuck his tongue out at the vidscreen. To conceal her surprise, she put her chin in her hand and covered her mouth. When Lee opened the box, Kara thought at first it was coasters, but when Lee pulled the item out of the box, she saw it was a small wooden rack, and the things she’d thought were coasters were made to contain spices - whichever six of them Lee used most. “That is brilliant!”

Lee nodded enthusiastically. “It is. I don’t get to do much cooking, but this is the perfect size to sneak into the mess and frak about with a recipe.”

Kara rolled her eyes. That was so Lee. His idea of risky behavior. She looked at the vidscreen and gave Karl’s family a thumb up and mouthed _perfect_. Karl’s mom smiled back at her.

Karl handed her the last one, the one for all three of them. It was a gift card to a place called Galen’s Gift Emporium. “What’s this?” Kara asked.

Karl’s mom winked at her. “You’ll see when you pull up the website. Handcrafted stuff, one of a kind, custom-made. You name it. Trust me. Whatever you pick out, you will love.”

That wink told Kara it was something which would embarrass the crap out of Lee, and she loved doing it now even more than she had when they were just friends. “I can’t wait.” Behind his mom’s back, two of Karl’s sisters also gave her thumbs up. Okay. Definitely something she wanted to look at tonight.

“I’m glad you all liked your gifts, and I’m so happy you had time to call us so we could watch. Happy Solstice! Love you all!”

“Happy Solstice, Mom!” Karl said. Kara and Lee echoed the sentiment, and his mom ended the call.

“Now. Where were we? Oh, kissing. There was boykissing. Get back to it.” She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms.

“Gods, Kara. Frak off.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t like kissing each other. I know better.”

~*~*~

The closer it got to Solstice, the more anxious Lee got. It took him longer than it should have to ascertain the cause: Karl. Lee was taking them both home with him for Solstice; he’d already informed his father, who’d told him guests were welcome. That wasn’t the problem. His issue was how to act around Karl when he was at home. His father had assumed he and Kara were still together, which was fine, but he hadn’t known how to tell his father that he and Karl were together, too. They were a team now, the three of them; it was real, and it didn’t seem like the kind of thing to tell his dad on the phone. For a couple of nights now, he’d made Karl sleep in with Kara, because he hadn’t wanted them to know he wasn’t sleeping at all. He was tired and on edge, and between this and exams, his brain just wouldn’t shut down.

Karl sat him down after dinner one night when it was just the two of them. Kara had some extra time in the sims and she wouldn’t be home until late. “What’s going on, Lee? You’ve been crankier than Kara after her shots.”

He wasn’t sure what to say. More accurately, he wasn’t sure how to say it. “It’s about going home for Solstice.”

Karl shrugged. “I already know you didn’t tell your dad about us, Lee. It’s no big deal. You can tell him when you’re ready. I know keeping this to ourselves is important to you right now.”

“It’s more than just you and me. What about you and Kara? There’s no way my dad won’t pick up that you two are together now, and he’ll get all stern and pull me aside for a lecture on…something.”

“So what do you want to do? You want us to act like we’re not together while we’re there?”

Lee got up and leaned against the counter. “That’s not what I want. It’s not fair to anybody.”

“What _do_ you want, Lee?”

Lee looked down at the floor, then back at Karl. “I want us to be together. All three of us. I want the whole world to know we’re together.”

“So you want to go public with it? Or you still want to keep this quiet, just here in the suite?” 

Karl’s voice was even, and Lee couldn’t get a good read on how Karl was feeling about this. “I - I don’t know. I’m still not ready for my dad to find out, but I hate that you and Kara have to keep pretending just for me.”

“Lee, we’re used to keeping it to ourselves except when we’re here in the suite. We can do that at your dad’s house, too.” He got up and went to the counter, pulling Lee into a hug. “If that’s what you’ve been worried about, you can stop. Kara and I can wait until you’re ready for your dad to know.”

“Thanks.”

Karl hugged him tighter, then pulled his chin up for a kiss. “What do you say we indulge in a little tension relief? You need to sleep tonight.”

“I was hoping you guys hadn’t noticed.”

“We’re not idiots, Lee Adama. Kara’s been worried about you.”

Lee sighed.

“How about a hot shower first? You’re all tied up in knots.”

“Shower sounds good, Karl.”


	6. Chapter 6

Between gifts and luggage, it had made more sense to rent a car than to take the train, and they were about half an hour out. Kara was laid across the back seat sleeping like the dead; she’d pulled several all-nighters to get ready for exams. Karl was driving, and Lee was chewing on his thumbnail. Karl reached out and grabbed his hand and put it on his thigh. “Stop worrying. It’ll be fine, Lee.”

Lee nodded, unconvinced.

They pulled up in front of his dad’s house with the sun shining directly into their faces. Someone jumped off the porch and hurried toward the car. Lee opened his door and Zak yanked him into a tight hug. “Zak? I thought you were going to be at mom’s.”

“Change of plans. Mom is…traveling. With someone.” Zak watched Karl get out of the car and waved to him. “Dad said you were bringing your girlfriend. You have interesting taste in girls, Lee.”

“Kara’s in the back seat. She fell asleep, and Karl and I both know better than to wake her up unexpectedly.” He grinned crookedly at Zak, hoping he wouldn’t have to explain how Helo fit into the equation.

Zak shrugged. “Tell me what to carry. Dad and Saul are out back. Dad’s picking vegetables or something. No idea what Saul’s doing.” He hefted several packages as Lee handed them to him, and started toward the house. “Oh. Since there’s three of you, you wanna sleep in with me? Or Karl could.”

Lee hid behind the raised trunk of the car, realizing at that moment he’d either be sleeping alone or with just one of them for the duration of this visit. Gods. This sucked. He slammed the trunk shut, hoping maybe it’d wake up Kara. “We can figure it out later, Zak.”

“I’ll drop the gifts in the living room, then.” Zak took the porch steps two at a time and rushed in the front door, shouting for their dad.

By the time he and Karl got to the front door, his dad was pushing the screen open for them. “Where’s Kara?”

“Asleep in the car. We’ll get everything inside first. Better not to wake her until we have to.”

His dad squeezed his shoulder and said, “Okay. Dinner’ll be on in about half an hour.”

Lee nodded and followed Karl to the upstairs landing. He nodded his head toward the room he usually used when he was here, and Karl shouldered the door open and walked in.

“Wow, Lee. Is that a king-sized bed?”

Lee looked up. Frakkin’ bed was huge - it took up most of the room now. “That…wasn’t here last time I was here.”

“Maybe your dad knows something’s up?”

Lee shook his head. Very unlikely. They dropped all their luggage on the far side against the wall, and Lee dug into his pocket. “Flip a coin to see who awakens the beast?”

Karl laughed. “I’ll do it. She’s already hit me once today. Maybe I’m covered.” He dropped a kiss on Lee’s mouth and headed back down.

Zak was talking to Saul, helping set the table, and their dad was in the kitchen, muttering imprecations at the stove, it sounded like. Lee hovered; it looked like Zak had been here a few days, and he and Saul had a rhythm going.

“How’d exams go, Lee? Anything giving you trouble?” Saul asked.

Lee shook his head. “No. I didn’t have to take two of them, because they were project classes, and I turned my projects in a week ago.”

Zak laughed. “That’s so you, Lee. Such a brown-noser.”

“I like being prepared, Zak,” Lee huffed.

“Gods, Lee. I was just kidding. What’s got you so irritable?”

He shoved down his fear about the three of them, and apologized. “Sorry. Long trip. Guess I’m still tense.”

“I’ll say.” Zak grinned at him.

They heard steps on the porch and Lee turned to watch Karl carrying Kara up the steps. Just before he got to the door, Kara came to life, and Karl had to ease her to her feet to keep from dropping her. Kara looked around. “Guess we’re here, then, huh?” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss Karl, and Lee heard the silence behind him. He felt paralyzed, unable to move in any direction.

Karl reached for the screen and the spell was broken. Lee hurried toward the door, silently trying to come up with answers to the inevitable questions. He leaned forward and kissed Kara, twining their hands together. “Glad you’re awake.” He was afraid to turn around, but he squared his shoulders and pulled her with him. “Kara, you remember my dad and Saul. This is my little brother Zak. Zak, Kara.”

She smiled and yawned. “Sorry. I guess I pulled too many overnighters studying for exams. What’s for dinner?” She pulled out a chair and plopped down in it. “I’m starving.”

Saul laughed and Lee’s dad went back into the kitchen for the rest of the dishes. “Pot roast. Potatoes. Gravy. Fresh steamed vegetables from the garden. Dig in.”

Kara didn’t hesitate, and everybody laughed. “Glad to see you’ve got a good appetite, Kara,” Bill said.

During dinner, Zak carried most of the conversation, and Lee periodically caught Zak watching Kara and Karl. A couple of times he raised a brow at Lee, but didn’t ask about what he’d seen. Lee knew he would later, when they were figuring out the sleeping arrangements. Gods, he didn’t want to deal with this. He wanted it all to be out in the open and fine so he could sleep with his partners. He wanted his dad not to care about who he was sleeping with, involved with. Maybe marrying. That part was only in his head for right now, though.

After dinner, Saul and Zak shooed everybody out of the kitchen so they could handle the dishes. Bill took the rest of them into the living room and found a pyramid game. He and Kara heckled each other about Picon’s and Caprica’s chances for a Worlds Championship based on their current season records. Eventually Kara fell silent, and when Lee looked, she was asleep again with her head on the arm of the couch. He elbowed Karl, and they smiled at each other.

Karl got up and jostled her awake. “C’mon, Kara. Let’s get you upstairs.” Kara grumbled at him, and he dragged her off the couch and herded her toward the stairs.

The living room was silent for a few minutes after they left, until his dad said, “Why don’t you go on upstairs, Lee? I’m sure she’ll sleep better if you’re both up there.”

Lee’s jaw dropped and he blinked.

“Was it supposed to be a secret, Lee? That the three of you are an item?” His dad’s voice was gentler than he’d heard it in a long time.

Lee shook himself. “How’d -”

“Lee, things changed for you this past year. Even though you might think I don’t really listen to you, I heard the way you talked about the two of them. Why do you think your room has the bigger bed?”

Lee was stumped. “But Zak -”

“I didn’t say anything to him. I figured you would when you were ready, or he already knew.”

Lee didn’t know what to say. He’d been so worried about his dad finding out, and this was…anticlimactic.

“Go on, son. Get some sleep. Plenty of time to talk tomorrow. We’ve got to get out and decorate the solstice log and get the lights up.”

Lee stood and impulsively bent to squeeze his dad’s shoulders. “Thanks, dad.”

He headed for the stairs, passing Saul on the way. “G’night, Saul.”

“Night, kid.”

When Lee got upstairs, Karl had tucked Kara in and was reading a book. He looked up when Lee came in. 

“My dad already knows. He said it’s the reason this room has the bigger bed now.”

Karl stood up and came over to him. “You okay with that?”

Lee looked around the room, a weird sense of anxiety under his skin. “I guess. I’ve been so worried about telling him I don’t know what to do now that I don’t have to hide it anymore.”

Karl hugged him. “How about you come to bed? It was a long drive. We’ll all sleep better now. Kara wasn’t much good at hiding it anyway.”

Lee laughed softly. “Yeah. My brother kept giving me the eye all through dinner, like he was worried she was cheating on me and I just wasn’t saying anything. Dad says he doesn’t know. That he didn’t tell him.”

“C’mon. Get ready for bed.” Karl pushed him away and went back to the bed, scooting into the middle against Kara. He held the covers up for Lee and once Lee turned out the light, he tucked the covers around Lee and spooned him. “Night, Lee.”

“Night.”

~*~*~

The following afternoon, they were hanging the lights around the house and in the trees in the front yard. Zak had gone inside, and came back out with a couple of huge bundles of mistletoe. He hung one right in front of the door just as Kara came out with another extension cord. Zak grinned at her, and she let the screen slap shut behind her. She put her hands on his face and kissed him thoroughly, Zak’s hands hovering around her shoulders the whole time. She stepped back. “Not bad, kid. You need more practice, though.”

“You volunteering?”

Both Lee and Karl said, “No,” and Zak turned to give them the finger.

He turned back to Kara and said, “That’s my big brother. Lee, ruining all my fun since the day I was born.”

Saul burst out laughing. Kara shrugged, patted Zak on the cheek, and walked down the steps unravelling the extension cord for Bill.

When they had arranged all the lights according to Saul’s blueprint, they cleaned up the debris and trooped inside. “Why don’t you all get cleaned up? We’ve got the solstice log ready, so before dinner we can light it,” Bill said. “A couple or three hours.”

Everybody nodded and headed off in different directions. Kara climbed the stairs and tossed herself across the middle of the bed. “I need a nap. Must be all the country air.”

Karl laughed. “Yeah. Because we’re so far out in the country, Kara.”

“Whatever.” She sat up long enough to pull off her shirt and toss it on the floor, then pulled the blanket from the foot of the bed. She heard Lee sigh as he picked her shirt up, and she smiled to herself.

~*~*~

Bill and Saul and Zak had dressed the solstice log before Kara and the boys had gotten up that morning, and it was sitting on the hearth when Kara came downstairs. Despite Karl’s razzing, when she’d woken up, the boys were asleep, too, so she’d showered and dressed and gone downstairs without waking them. 

She was restless, and wandered around the outside of the house, looking at the lights in the dim of dusk and thinking about other solstices. Her mother had never been one for any kind of celebration, so she had few memories for reference. She hoped she didn’t do anything wrong tonight. When she got around back, she saw a bench, and sat down, gazing up at the stars she could see. It really was pretty out here, even if it wasn’t as far out in the country as she’d complained about earlier.

A light went on in a room downstairs, catching Kara’s attention. It looked like a library or office and she made a note to ask about it later. Lee’s dad stood in front of a shelf of books, apparently looking for something; he slid his fingers across the spines of several shelves of books before he pulled one out and flipped through it. An arm went around his shoulder and Bill put a finger in the page to mark his place. He turned his head and then she could see Saul’s balding gray head as they kissed each other.

Huh.

She wanted to laugh; all this time Lee had been so freakishly controlling about his dad finding out he was gay, and here his dad was kissing his friend. Clearly, Lee had been missing some signals. To be fair, so had she, because she hadn’t gotten a ‘together’ vibe from them at all. She watched for a second or two more, then turned away to look up at the stars again.

She glanced over when the back screen snicked shut. “Wondered when you were gonna wake up.” She held out her hand and Karl sat down next to her. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and waited to see if Karl would notice Bill and Saul through the window.

“Whoa. Kara -”

“I know. Totally didn’t see _that_ coming.”

“We gonna tell Lee?”

“No. Not right now, anyway. There may be a reason they haven’t told him.”

“They’re very comfortable together. They must’ve been together a long time. I wonder how Lee never figured it out.”

“Lee lives in his own little world sometimes, Karl.”

“True.” He laughed. “Good thing he has us to take his blinders off.”

The light went out, and they sat for a few more minutes before Karl stood up, pulling her up with him. “Let’s go wake up sleeping beauty.”

“He is pretty, isn’t he?”

“Mmmmhmm.”

They looked at each other and laughed.


End file.
